The world's most popular mobile OS turns 10 years old today
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Ten years ago today, the most popular mobile OS in the world was introduced as the first Android powered phone, the T-Mobile G1, was announced. The handset, built by HTC, featured a QWERTY slider, and was equipped with a trackball. At the time, T-Mobile wasn't the innovative carrier it is today, so the release of the G1 (aka the HTC Dream) was clearly a test of the software.
The first publicly released build of Android (v1.1) was missing a few things such as a native video player, and a virtual QWERTY keyboard. The update to Android 1.5 Cupcake took care of the latter, and the Android Market offered apps to fill in some of the blanks. But the important thing was that Android offered customizations not available on the Apple iPhone 3G.
Android did not go straight to the top of the charts. It wasn't until Verizon released the Android 2.0 powered Motorola DROID on November 5th, 2009, that Google's open source mobile OS was stuffed inside hardware that could challenge the iPhone. Motorola and Verizon teamed up to produce the DROID Does ad campaign. Taking an obvious shot at the iPhone, the tag line was that everything iDon't, DROID Does. Starting with Android 2.2 Froyo, the OS started supporting Adobe Flash. Google hoped that this would differentiate Android handsets from the iPhone, but Flash ended up a disaster for Android users instead. It hogged resources and made Android phones supporting it lag badly.

2010's Nexus One was the most powerful Android phone at the time
Unlike the rigid iPhone, which at the time had just one screen-size (3.5-inches), Android manufacturers were already looking to see how they could stretch the hardware. Phones like the Motorola DROID X carried a 4.3-inch display. By the third quarter of 2010, Android was the second most popular mobile OS in the world with 25.5% of the global smartphone market, trailing only the 36.6% share belonging to Symbian. Apple's iOS was third with a 16.7% slice of the pie. The year before, Symbian was loaded on a leading 44.6% of handsets and BlackBerry OS was on 20.7%. Android was an afterthought with a 3.5% market share.
The very next quarter, Q4 of 2010, Android became the most popular mobile OS, found on nearly one out of every smartphones. Symbian dropped to second (30.6%), and iOS (16%) was third. Manufacturers like HTC continued to experiment by releasing phones such as the EVO 3D. After a rocky debut, Samsung's Galaxy S line struck smartphone gold with the Galaxy S II, and Motorola was the first to grace a smartphone with a fingerprint scanner (Motorola Atrix 4G).

The Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL feature stock Android and first dibs on updates
Today, Android dominates the smartphone market. According to Statista, during the second quarter of 2018, 88% of smartphones purchased world-wide had Android installed. Apple's iOS was next with an 11.9% share.
10 years ago today, Android was unveiled and even though it showed promise, no one could have imagined how dominant it would turn out to be. So blow out the candles and sing Happy Birthday to the most popular mobile OS in the world.
source: Statista
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